Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Fiddler David Greely departs the Mamou Playboys for the quiet of acoustic music. By Hope Rurik
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| Photo by Hope Rurik |
On March 8, surrounded by Eunice’s drenched Mardi Gras revelers, David Greely said a tender and tearful goodbye to Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys — the band he and Riley founded more than 20 years ago.
“I always wanted to play Cajun music,” Greely said from the bandstand. “Not only did I get to play Cajun music, but I got to play with the greatest band.”
“He made the greatest Cajun band,” guitarist Sam Broussard countered.
The divorce is a necessary evil in order for Greely to maintain his hearing. Two years ago, the fiddler learned he was losing his ability to hear high frequency sounds. He suffers from a condition called tinnitus, meaning he hears a constant ringing that drowns out subtle tones and cues.
“You know what cicadas sound like in the summer?” Greely asks. “That’s what it’s like all the time.”
He says the sound is still low enough to ignore, but playing in clubs aggravates the problem, and it sometimes takes three days for the ringing to subside to a normal level. He can no longer play at the sound level clubs and dance halls require, and his retirement from the Playboys is actually a retreat into acoustic music.
“There are a lot of situations where it’s actually kind of unusual to set up bass and drums and be as loud as a Cajun bandstand is,” he says. “I love exploring Cajun music that’s more designed for house music. There’s a whole huge area of Cajun music that is designed for that and is really beautiful. It has its own kind of energy for sure; it’s not all mellow, but it’s joyous, gorgeous music played on acoustic instruments.”
Where many successful Cajun musicians are born into the culture and the art form, Greely studied it from a distance. The Baton Rouge native had the fascination and lineage, but no immediate connection. While living in San Antonio, he “bluffed” his way into a gig at Boudreaux’s restaurant.
“I thought, ‘Cool. I’ve got a gig playing Cajun music. Now, I’m gonna learn to play it,’” Greely recalls.
His stint at the restaurant was the catalyst for an increasing passion for Cajun music and culture that Greely continues to feed through constant research and at least two hours of daily practice. Although this new chapter means he will have the opportunity to explore new elements of his craft, Greely says he’ll miss his old audience.
“A Cajun dance hall audience is the most entertaining thing to people on the bandstand. Like when we play at Pat’s in Henderson, there’s not too many hipsters out there. It’s all down-home folk and, man, they have a blast, and they’re just such characters,” he says. “Just about every time I play, I get overcome with laughter, and I can’t play on one song or another.”
Greely may have started out faking it, but he made it and is still making it and says he hopes to keep making it for as long as he can.
GumboJet, GreelySavoyduo, and Marce LaCouture and David Greely are his current acoustic projects and the names to look for when longing for the Balfa-inspired whine of Greely’s fiddle.
“I’m having more fun playing music now than I ever have. I work on it constantly. I’m still involved with it — obsessed with Cajun music. I love it more than ever,” he says. “I’ve got 20, 30 years to go, if I’m lucky, and I want to be able to play music all that time, but if I keep punishing my hearing, I’ll have to quit.”
JUNE 17 If anyone ever wonders why Saints fans hate Atlanta with a capital H, here's a good indication. Radio "professionals" at an Atlanta station created an entire segment around making fun of former Saints player Steve Gleason, who is now paralyzed by ALS. Listen, nobody's ever accused DJs of being rocket scientists. But how could someone think it is amusing to pretend to ask a man with a degenerative, fatal disease if he will be alive next week? The DJs have been fired, and are now whining about how gutless their former bosses are. Wow.
JUNE 18 Here's the latest from the Advocate on the fatal hit-and-run accident allegedly involving the president of the Livingston Parish School Board. He's accused by police of hitting a 21-year-old man on a highway early Sunday and driving away. The man died at a hospital later. On Monday, police seized the president's truck and towed it away. But he's available for board meetings: apparently a $500 bond is sufficient for this type of thing over in St. Helena Parish.
JUNE 18 Former broadcast journalist Griffin Scott has posted this plea on his blog for financial assistance from his readers. Scott, who says he was fired after he wrote something fairly innocuous (for Facebook) on his wall, is suing a media giant for his job back. He's framed himself as David going after a bloated media giant, and he's probably not far off.
JUNE 18 Here's a fairly absurd column posted on DIG Magazine about the completely absurd practice of naming killer storms. Tornadoes don't have names. Blizzards don't have names. But hurricanes do, and there's a big process to bestow them, Jacques Cormery writes. He's right about the crazy assemblage of names -- this year, there's everything from Tanya to Humberto -- and his idea that we don't waste good names on killer storms is a good one.
JUNE 17 Political columnist John Maginnis has some advice for Louisiana Republicans: grow up. After the schism that occurred in this past session - fiscal hawks teaming up with Democrats to spank the Republican "majority" and hand Gov. Jindal his, er, aspirations for continued solon control -- they need to figure out how to get along with each other, Maginnis writes.
JUNE 17 Here's the Picayune's obit story for Dorothy 'Miss Dot' Domilise, the lady who made poboys at the uptown restaurant that bears her name. Miss Dot moved to New Orleans during World War II, where she met and married her husband Sam. When she passed away Friday she was 90, and had spent more than 60 of those years working at the restaurant on Annunciation Street.
JUNE 17 This editorial in the Advocate speaks in favor of the consent decrees that have federal judges overseeing police operations and the sheriff's parish prison in New Orleans. Mayor Landrieu and Sheriff Gusman can't get along, so outside forces, like the Inspector General and the judges, are needed to make sure things run right, the editorial opines.
JUNE 18 Here's a post from Manny Schewitz on Forward Progressives that is good for a chuckle. Manny had an epiphany back in November, and is sharing it with us today: he believes that Fox "News" is killing the GOP by pandering to right wing nuts. Now, don't get it twisted: Manny's not broke up about it. He says he enjoys watching the downward spiral with a shot of whiskey and "a schadenfreude chaser."
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